When New Yorker Dennis Chiamulera logged onto his favourite gay porn site for a bit of adult entertainment, the last thing he expected to receive was “a barrage” of spam mail. Now, he is suing the site because he says they have sold his information without consent, violating his privacy.
The aggrieved man is also seeking class action status on behalf of other subscribers to the site who he thinks are in a similar situation. According to Out, his privacy rights were violated by the site, owned by TLA Entertainment Group, under the Video Privacy Protection Act and the New York Video Consumer
Privacy Act.
Chiamulera is asking for $5 million for “wrongful disclosure of video tape rental or sales records”.
However, Chiamulera is expecting an extra $2,500 in damages for every other plaintiff in the case if it gets class action status.
“Despite the sensitive nature of its videos, TLA sold, rented, exchanged, and/or otherwise disclosed personal information about Plaintiff’s video purchases and/or rentals to data aggregators, data appenders, data cooperatives, and list brokers, among others, which in turn disclosed his information to
aggressive advertisers, nonprofit organisations, and other third-party companies,” reads the lawsuit.
Chiamulera claims that the gay porn site’s “disclosure of Personal Viewing Information, and other personal, demographic, and lifestyle information is not only unlawful, but also dangerous because it allows for the targeting of particularly vulnerable members of society, including members of the LGBTQ
community”.
The lawsuit alleges that TLA Entertainment Group breaks down its subscribers by sexual orientation and which films they rent or buy.
“In fact, almost any organisation could rent a list with the names and addresses of all gay TLA consumers who live in Texas; such a list would cost approximately $135 per thousand names listed”.
The court papers claimed that TLA “profits handsomely” from selling information, “at the expense of its consumers’ privacy and statutory rights”.
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